Documents vary in how they are organized. A document can be a single or a multi-page document. The document can have some or all of the document pages duplexed, that is, have information printed on both sides of a page. Additionally, a document may have the document pages secured together. The fastening device can be a staple, a clip such as a paper clip, a binder clamp or other forms of fastening. As a result, it is difficult to automate the processing of documents, particularly multi-page documents. Additionally, a document may have information obscured by the fastening means. For example, printed information can be under a staple or clip. When copying or scanning documents, a user must prepare the pages, often by removing any staples or other fasteners, and thereafter manually or automatically process the document such as by scanning, or copying, etc. each document page.
Typically, to automate coping or scanning of multi-page documents using existing technology, any page fastening device (staple, paper clip, clamp, etc.) must be manually removed from document. Then, the document can be placed in a feeder, which will separate sheets from the stack of pages and feed the pages for processing. Very often sheets of the document can be damaged due to staple removing causing a feeder to jam. Although many separate document processing modules have been developed to individually provide document processing functions such as staple removing, page flipping for books and document handler staple detector means, a comprehensive system is desirable for the processing of various types of multi-page documents.
It is an object of the present invention to facilitate the automated processing of documents.
It is a further object to provide a system that can automatically accommodate and process various types of document organizations.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a flexible system for detecting whether the pages of a multi-page document are held together by a fastener and depending on the determination automatically processing such documents.
It is still another object of the present invention to determine if any information on a document is located on the document page with respect to a fastener such that the document page cannot be properly processed without loss of such information.